No mercy

Last year, Chaleaw J., a 55 year-old tailor born in Chaiyaphum, resident in Bangkok and a self-taught computer geek was convicted of lese majeste on 1 September 2014. He was sentenced to three years, which was halved and suspended for two years.

The prosecution was dumbfounded that a lese majeste case could see a person go free and so appealed. According to Prachatai, in a secret appeals court hearing Chaleaw was sentenced “to five years in jail of offenses under Article 112 of the Criminal Crime Code, lese majeste law, and Article 14 of the 2007 Computer Crime Code for importing illegal online content.”

The report states that the “jail term was halved to two years and six months because the defendant pleaded guilty, but the court did not suspend the jail term. The verdict was read in camera and no one was allowed into the courtroom except the defense lawyer and the prosecutors.”